Saturday, 14 January 2012

yearly summary

finally back online after nearly six weeks without internet. the year ended as it began with a slow trickle of birds into the nets, although one of these was a first for me and the site. A common kestrel was entwined with a southern grey shrike in the net, the shrike a bit worse for where, but i'm pleased to report has been seen in its usual hunting spots since. also of note was a black redstart from 2007, a young blackcap with a hungarian ring, and a young male black redstart that i first thought was of the semirufus subspecies but on reviewing the photographs i now believe it was of the eastern race phoenicuroides.
we finished the year with a total of 2565 birds plus a further 621 retraps of which two were foreign birds (turkey and hungary ) and a further 32 were returning wintering or breeding birds or local birds over 1 year since they were first ringed. all in all it wasn't a bad first years ringing for me, and heres to more birds in 2012.